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Chicago, Ill. – No. 1 Loyola University snapped the No. 10 Lewis University men's volleyball team's five-match winning streak on Tuesday (March 18), defeating the Flyers 3-1 (22-25, 25-23, 25-19, 25-19) at Gentile Arena.
 
The Flyers fall to 14-5 on the year and 5-3 in Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association play while the Ramblers improve to 17-1 on the season and 9-0 in league action.
 
"We came out and played well at the beginning," Lewis head men's volleyball coach Dan Friend said. "Loyola made some adjustments and we didn't adjust as quickly as we needed to later in the match."
 
Junior outside hitter Greg Petty (Downers Grove, Ill./Downers Grove North) paced the Flyers with 17 kills and six digs while redshirt junior outside hitter Geoff Powell (Claremont, Calif./Claremont) chipped in 10 putaways and five digs. Redshirt senior setter BJ Boldog (Palatine, Ill./Palatine) dished out 33 assists while collecting six digs as junior libero Lucas Yanez (Burbank, Calif./John Burroughs) tallied seven digs for the Flyers. Sophomore middle blocker Bobby Walsh (Chicago, Ill./Mount Carmel) collected four kills along with two solo blocks and one block assist.
 
In the first set the Flyers jumped out of the gates hitting .308 (12 K, 4 E, 26 TA) while holding the Ramblers to a .121 (13 K, 9 E, 33 TA) hitting percentage. Lewis also held a 4.0-2.0 total block advantage over Loyola in the set. Petty led the floor with six kills while Powell tallied four putaways.

Loyola shook off the Flyers momentum in the second set, taking the set with two straight kills by Joe Smalzer after Lewis tied the set at 23-all with a putaway by Petty. The Flyers picked up four more blocks, including two solo blocks by Walsh, to have an 8.0-3.5 advantage on the Ramblers.

Lewis cooled off in the third set, only collecting nine kills with five errors in 25 attempts for a .160 hitting percentage. Loyola stopped all of the Flyers attempts to gain the upper hand in the game, as the Ramblers swung .379 with 16 putaways with five errors in 29 attempts.

After the Ramblers raced out to a 6-1 lead in the fourth set, the Flyers answered with a 7-2 run of their own to tie the set at 8-all. Loyola used another 6-1 run to push their lead back to five at 14-9, an advantage that Lewis could not overcome as the Ramblers collected the set and match.
 
The Rambler offense that hit .331 (64 K, 23 E, 124 TA) for the match was paced by Cody Caldwell's 21 kills, nine digs and five block assists while Joe Smalzer chipped in 20 putaways and eight digs. Loyola setter Peter Hutz tallied a floor-high 51 assists.
 
The Flyers are back in action on Friday (March 21) when they host Saint Francis for a 7 PM non-conference match-up. First serve on Military Appreciation Night is set for 7 PM.